...a photoBook is an autonomous art form, comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film. The photographs lose their own photographic character as things 'in themselves' and become parts, translated into printing ink, of a dramatic event called a book...
- Dutch photography critic Ralph Prins

dinsdag 30 december 2014

LE CORBUSIER: AircraftLE CORBUSIER, Aircraft. «L'avion accuse...». / By LE CORBUSIER. – London, New York: The Studio 1935. – 25,2 x 19,0 cm. 16 S. Text, [80] S. Tafeln mit 124 Tiefdruck-Abb. Ganzleinenband. Fotografischer Schutzumschlag. − (The New Vision)A republication of the original book by Le Corbusier. "'The airplane is the symbol of the new age,' declared Le Corbusier in the introduction to this book, first published in 1935. 'A new state of modern conscience. A new plastic vision. A new aesthetic.' In its paean to the 'joyous and productive impulse of the new machine-civilsation' this book, written by the master architect of Modernism, explores two themes. Firstly, it celebrates the sheer beauty of the airplanes themselves and the 'functional' spareness of their parts and elements - wingspars and propellors, engine frames and ailerons are contrasted with the godlike qualities of the aviators - 'once in the air, they exult in the daring of their departure.' Secondly there is the discovery of the aerial images, the bird's eye view as 'a new function added to our sense, a new standard of measurement, a new basis of sensation.' With unconscious irony, Corbusier predicts that the airplane 'indicts the city': 'cities must be extricated from their misery, come what may. Whole quarters of them must be destroyed and new cities built.' The commanding vigor of the text is matched by a dynamic range of illustrations, selected and laid out by Le Corbusier himself, a dramatic image of an aircraft carrier bears the title 'and Neptune rises from the sea, crowned with strange garlands, the weapons of Mars'. The result is a book that encapsulates the enthusiasm and excitement of the first aerial age, and the stimulus the airplane gave to the visual and intellectual ideas of the time." -- from interior flap. Printed in black-and-white. Includes list of illustrations.See Book Review: "Aircraft" by Le CorbusierbyMichael DiTullo&

Photography in the 20th Century

Author:Matti Boom, Hans Roosenboom

Publisher:nai010, Rijksmuseum

ISBN:978-94-6208-176-5

After the successful reopening of the Rijksmuseum in April of 2013, the museum’s Philips Wing will reopen in November with 'Modern Times', a major survey of twentieth-century photography compiled from the Rijksmuseum’s collection. This collection has grown spectacularly, particularly during the last decade, and now includes many masterpieces by world-famous photographers including André Kertész, Brassaï, Robert Capa, László Moholy-Nagy, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Weegee, William Klein, Cas Oorthuys, and Eva Besnyö.

With more than 350 photographs, the book 'Modern Times. Photography in the 20th Century' forms an impressive overview of the developments that took place during the twentieth century in photography, which grew by leaps and bounds into the ubiquitous and influential medium that we know today.

vrijdag 12 december 2014

Petra Stavast’s book is a great example of how editing used as a storytelling tool and not as a mere sequencing of images, can lead a project to another level. A complex puzzle and crossroads construction of the beauty to a find the intriguing real story behind Ramya’s life in a very humble and delicate way.

Erik Kessels continues his epic journey of humanizing photography in the digital age by showing the beauty of the error. Taking advantage of the great power of irony, In Almost Every Picture makes us reflect on the free will of the decisive moment.

Photo collector Brad Feuerhelm is becoming a key instigator of original and experimental approaches to the photobook — this project develops an extraordinary series of methodologies to create something new with Feuerhelm’s ‘cabinet of curiosities,’ as he describes his photographic collection. This book leaves you feeling unsure of and dislocated from everything you think you know about photography, old and new. Chapter 5, called ‘Command Shift 3; New Photography,’ is perhaps the freshest and most innovative statement on photography in 2014.

The title of this book (which I believe is now sold out – with a 2nd edition on the way) means to withdraw, or to be in seclusion. This book is endlessly rewarding, not only for its superlative technical qualities, but that it comes very close to replicating the experience of walking alone through a vast, dark, foreboding landscape. The book feels like one huge picture of a landscape that we experience bit by bit as we creep forward into and through the darkness.

Anouk Kruithof is super smart and this is her super smartest book. She deals with hugely complex subjects (how we see, curate, and exhibit photographs) in a light and accessible form, making you work to see the pictures. Imaginative, intelligent and funny, it’s more about the process of how we select and view of images than a photobook.

This inexpensive paperback book is the perfect container for hundreds of mirrors collected by Hans Eijkelboom over 22 years of extraordinary and methodical investigation through the crowded streets of Western cities. At first it seems a simple catalog with a minimalist design. However, it suggests a deep, yet accessible reflection on the homologating effects of a deeply individualistic society, explained through rigid photographic grids and synthetic captions as footer.

A moving book in a delicate wrapping, with details that offer stillness and time to let your thoughts run and take in these quiet images. They don’t need to be big concepts. The images seem almost made in a snapshot manner, but at the same time I sense a lot of thought behind these images. Or maybe it’s because they are the kind of images you recognize without knowing why. I find myself accepting all of these moments, sculptures and the emotions they give me. The whole experience reminds me of the walk you would take after experiencing something strong: then you see and experience everything differently. Geert saw for us and I feel both lost and found.

Food for animals in the zoo is maybe the weirdest and least photogenic subject for a photobook, but when put together in this colorful monumental work, perfectly size, printed with so much love and handwork, it becomes a masterpiece and I can’t stop looking.

The house and walled garden where Erik lives with his wife, son and pets shape the boundaries of this book. Only once to be crossed with a very upsetting image just outside the walls. One of his best books ever!

Again a book with people on the street, but this time they play a role in a story different from reality. These men and women are photographed by night, staring in the distance, combined on every spread with a translation of the first sentence from Dante’s Inferno. It becomes haunting and beautiful at the same time. This book was published some years ago, but there is a reprint now and I think every book-lover should have it.

Ill birds, held up by hands covered in latex gloves and shot in front a plain background. It all sounds very cold, but the images in this book are anything but. Through the contrast between the fragile animals and their clinic surroundings shines warmth and care. Simply beautiful.

Jan’s simple act of asking people how they wish to be presented is unexpectedly powerful in the lines it draws about political and cultural assumptions of self-representation. Wait until you see the spider image.